Concetti Chiave
- In ancient Arabian religions, tribes worshipped various gods, demons, and celestial bodies, often in the form of stones or trees.
- Mecca was the central holy city where Arabs made annual pilgrimages, temporarily halting conflicts for religious observance.
- The Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure in Mecca, housed the "black stone," believed to have divine origins and significance.
- Besides religious practices, Mecca was an economic hub with seasonal fairs, markets, and cultural exchanges attracting traders and scholars.
- Muhammed began preaching a new religion in Mecca, aiming for the unification of the Arab people through common beliefs.
Mecca and many old Arabic religions
Religion is one aspect most people are attached to and practised in many countries (though the night be different).
Regarding the aspect related to the religion, almost every Arab tribe had their own gods or demons, they often worshiped objects in the form of stones or trees or even celestial bodies: molyti shrines, in fact, were built on the hills because there they celebrated the cult of lunar deities. The statues of various deities were also kept in recent sacred places within the small towns that rose in the desert or along the caravan routes.
The most important of these sanctuaries stood in the center of the holy city of Mecca. Annually Arabs made pilgrimages to their holy city, suspending for the occasion every conflict.
In the same sacred enclosure that welcomed all of their gods was also the Kaaba, which is a cube-shaped building designed to preserve the so-called "black stone" (probably a meteorite): it was said that it had fallen on the earth by God's will and that , as originally it was white, but had turned black because of the sins of men.
The reasons that pushed the Arabs to Mecca were not only religious but also trade and economy. Every spring at Mecca there were organized fairs and markets, traders coming from everywhere, the scholars met to exchange knowledge and opinions and set out banquet with music and dances to entertain. In this context Muhammed began to preach a new religion that would provide the key to the unification of the Arab popular.
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